Daintree Buyback Lot 305 Purchase and Protection

FUNDRAISING FOR THIS PROJECT WAS COMPLETED IN NOVEMBER 2019 AND PURCHASE OCCURRED IN APRIL 2020. 

Project snapshot

Location: Queensland, Australia

Purchase of Lot 305 Cypress Road, Cow Bay

Area: 1 hectare 

Threatened Species: Southern Cassowary, Ant Plant, Noahs Walnut, Climbing Pandanus Thornton Aspen

Habitat: Lowland tropical rainforest with endangered Fan Palm ecosystem RE 7.3.7.

Threats: Development for housing, domestic dogs, weeds

Lot 305 Cypress Road in the Daintree Lowland Rainforest - Picture by Steven Nowakowski

Lot 305 Cypress Road, Cow Bay is 1 ha in size and is completely covered by tropical rainforest. Buying and protecting this property will be a fantastic outcome for conservation. It connects to the Daintree National Park, is in pristine condition, and is vital habitat for the endangered Cassowary. 

Buying land in this location helps us to wind back the impacts of the disastrous 1980’s rural residential subdivision. We are focusing our efforts on Cow Bay as scientists have identified this area as being the highest priority for conservation. It has some of the highest levels of biodiversity and the highest densities of Cassowaries in Australia. 

Through our Land Purchase to Save the Daintree National Park project, we are buying land and adding properties to the Daintree National Park and World Heritage Area and are helping to preserve critical Cassowary habitat. 

Following the purchase of this property, it will be gifted to the Queensland Government for inclusion in the Daintree National Park. 
Lot 305 Cypress Road is a freehold property that was zoned by the Douglas Shire Council as suitable for development. The property is 1 ha in size (10,000 sqm). 

Prior to making a commitment to purchase Lot 305 Cypress Road in Cow Bay we wanted to be reassured of its conservation values.

A vegetation survey was undertaken of Lot 305 Cypress Road, Cow Bay on the 2nd of September 2019 by ecologist and botanist Kristopher Kupsch. He found the vegetation to be remnant (not regrowth or disturbed) with a well development intact assemblage of 145 native species.

The vegetation Regional Ecosystem (RE) mapping by The Department of Environment and Science, Queensland Herbarium is mostly consistent with the site appraisal and much of the vegetation on Lot 305 is Fan Palm dominated tropical rainforest. This is classified as closed forest RE 7.3.7. and the Queensland Government has listed this vegetation type as “Endangered” under the Vegetation Management Act 1999. The Queensland government indicates “very little of this habitat (RE 7.3.7) remains” with an estimated 9,000 hectares prior to clearing and 1,000 hectares remaining in 2017. This Fan Palm dominated vegetation type solely occurs between Cardwell and Cape Tribulation and what remains, less than half is within reserves.

Thank you to the generous donors who funded the purchase and protection of this Daintree Rainforest Property. Thanks also to our friends at We Are Explorers​ for their wonderful support and to everyone that donated to the crowdfunding campaign in October 2019. You did it! 

You can learn more about our project Land Purchase to Save the Daintree here. 

Lot 305 Cypress Road in the Daintree Rainforest - Photo by Steven Nowakowski

Please make a donation now to help purchase the next Daintree Rainforest property.